I like the idea of a rebuild I really do, but my housekeeping is not that good, and I dont have the three days that I have a feeling it would take. I have opted for the "clean uninstall/reinstall" of all Sony Applications Vegas/Acid/DVD Arch. I followed the Answer ID 4289 located at http://www.custcenter.com/cgi-bin/sonypictures.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=4289&p_created=1220389425&p_sid=qWKmHhVj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MSwxJnBfcHJvZHM9MCZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9NDI4OQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1
All have been removed, registry keys purged and reinstalled and I'm going in for the render. I'm hopeful that I will have decent results to report in 6 hours or so.

This is my error message verbatim, I shizinit you not

An error occured while creating the media file blahblahblah.wmv
The reason for the error could not be detirmined.

Can you successfully create the output in another format? If not this might point to something being wrong with a clip or element on the timeline.

why does this thread extend off my screen to the right while all others don't?

I rendered it widescreen.

that's a negative. I tried to go the "straight to DVD architect" route and ran into the same problems on two different machines.

I am 2 hours 22 minutes into my render with 2:35 left at 48%.

Two other changes I made while skimming the forum on render issues.
I busted back to 1 rendering thread.
I have 4 gb of physical ram on the machine and I made a change to my swap file.
I used to have a 5 ½ gb swap file. I broke it up into two 1 ½ gb files on different disks.

You said you've been doing this for several years and suddely developed this problem.

Have you changed the version of Vegas you are using?

Have you changed the size of the still images on the T/L

Have you made your slide shows longer?

Bob.

I've been using Vegas since v 4.0
I haven't made one radical change to my slow, overly deliberate style of slideshow editing and assembly since I started using the beast.
I take that back, when I first started, I used PNG files.
Now I'm using Lightroom generated .JPEG's from the slideshow module and my titles are PSD's created in Photoshop. If anything, the Lightroom JPEG's are smaller than my old RAW to JPG converts.
The only constant between the two machines is Auslogic's Boost Speed registry repair. This is an otherwise FANTASTIC suite of programs, but I think it may have changed a registry setting that did not need to be messed with. almost all my experience with automated registry repair has broke a program or two. I think that's what MAY have happened.

Sorry but you haven't answered the question.

From the time your process worked have you:

1) Changed the version of Vegas you were using. I ask this because some versions of Vegas have significant issues especially with large numbers of high resolution stills.

2) Changed the resolution of the images you're using. You say you've changed from PNG to JPG. That alone could be an issue. JPGs in Vegas use Quicktime to decode them. Have you updated your QT player? Suggest you try going back to PNG.

To be honest I've yet to hear of a registry mixup causing a problem with Vegas. I'm sure there's someone who has had an issue caused by that but it is the very last thing I'd be considering. On the other hand the problems you are having have been experienced by just about every Vegas user and this and other fora a full of complaints. You're best chance to solve your problem is to either find which version of Vegas works best for you or else modifying your workflow to accomodate which version of Vegas you are using.

I use CC Cleaner from time to time. To the best of limited knowledge all registry cleaners do is remove references to things that no longer exist on the PC. They don't change registry entires, just remove one that are redundant. The probability of them causing a screwup in an application seems pretty remote to me. There's other things that can mess up Vegas and other NLEs, like installing multiple codec packs however Vegas tends to use it's own codecs so again the chances of this causing you grief are fairly small unless you are using some obscure codecs which you are not.
The most likely culprit in your case is Vegas itself or what you are feeding it.

Bob.

I downloaded version 8.0c on 10092008 and my first try at Vegas 8 was downloaded on 10112007. I used Version 6 before that and before that I used version 4. I only use Vegas for one purpose and that's assembling these slideshows. 99.5 % JPG and and .5% PSD stills, combined with wma music files. The amount of still images per show varies from 215 to 240 and the file sizes are 2560 x 1600 11.7MB .jpeg files. they are from 1.3 to 2 mb each in size on the disk. . That's big, but just bigger than what they need to be...I dont make a whole lot of radical deep zooms and pans, they're subtle, but I do want more res than I could use. Editing the files in Vegas, doing what I need to do IN the program is easy. Importing, adjusting, no problem. Rendering a file is the most important thing this software does. Call me crazy, but I think given what you know about the files that I'm using, the machine that I have, Vegas should be able to render whatever type of file I want, without ANY problem. In 5 hours or less.
I don't really know what the problem is or was. All I know is that it DID work and then it DIDN'T work. On 2 machines. I've reinstalled all of my Sony software after doing a "clean uninstall" and I have a smokin' clean HD WMV render, using exactly the same settings that gave me nothing but a cryptic, "you're S.O.L." message since the beginning of September. I wholeheartedly recommend the "clean uninstall" if you have a problem like this. I just wish I had thought of it sooner instead of banging my head against the wall for 8 months. I sure am glad I didn't spend 239 dollars on the upgrade...
By the way, this render took 5 hours 00 minutes and 5 seconds....

sorry Jay but from your original post when you said:

"I contend that I may need to completely uninstall including registry entries and then reinstall....does any one else think this is a good idea? And if so can you tell my what those entries would be to get me back to a totally sony-free state so I can reinstall. "

I thought you still hadn't fixed the problem but now you're saying you fixed it back in September.

If you want to do a complete uninstall then instructions are in the Knowledgebase, I'd post you the direct link but the URL is very long and depending on your OS the instructions vary. Just click on the "Support" link at the top of the page, select Knowledgebase and type "Uninstall" in the search and you'll get the links to the instructions for the various OSs.

For the record I went through this process a few days ago trying to get V9.0c to play nice and it made not a shred of difference and I've since gone back to V9.0b.

Based on my experience I'm somewhat reluctant to recommend this as it took me a lot of time getting back all the other Sony products I had installed. In your case if you've done it before and it worked and you only have one Sony product then it's worth a shot.

Bob.